Exclusive of my very strong desire to serve Colonel Vesey, I beg you will believe that I should have had a very particular gratification in promoting the success of any measure for which you are pleased to express an interest.

Brigadier Brock to his brother Irving.

    NIAGARA, January 10, 1811.

I cannot sufficiently thank you for your constant attention to me; you contribute largely to render my present sequestered abode tolerable, and let me entreat you to continue the practice you have lately adopted of sending me a letter every fortnight.  In addition to the last daily paper, send me likewise the Observer, or any other weekly depository of domestic news.  You, who have passed all your days in the bustle of London, can scarcely conceive the uninteresting and insipid life I am doomed to lead in this retirement.  My situation obliges me to maintain some sort of establishment, otherwise I should, from inclination, confine my intercourse to a very limited circle.  I have been for some days projecting a jaunt into the interior of the States, and I may probably visit New York before I return, but I shall weigh passing events well, ere I hazard so long a journey.  The heavy rains which have fallen for the last ten days have delayed my progress, as I did not choose to undertake the journey on horseback.  I by no means admire travelling alone in so comfortless a manner, in which the gratification would not repay the inconvenience.

I purpose directing my steps in the first instance to Ballstown, a medicinal water of great celebrity, about twenty miles north of Albany.  I then expect to be joined by James Brock, and probably by some others of the 49th.  I shall wait ten days, not only to give him full time to come up, but likewise to try the efficacy of the waters, as I have an idea that they will be serviceable to me.  I feel at this moment infinitely better, but am not quite the thing, without knowing what ails me.  A sound jolting and change of air will produce wonders, and make me look once more upon a beefsteak with appetite.  At present I live very abstemiously, and scarcely ever touch wine.

I mentioned in a former letter that the new arrangements deprived me of the comfort of a companion.  Expecting to obtain leave to visit England, I thought it of little consequence, but now that such an indulgence is denied me, I feel sadly the want of a lively, communicative associate.  I hardly ever stir out, and, unless I have company at home, my evenings are passed solus.  I read much, but good books are scarce, and I hate borrowing.  I like to read a book quickly, and afterwards revert to such passages as have made the deepest impression, and which appear to me most important to remember—­a practice I cannot conveniently pursue unless the book be mine.  Should you find that I am likely to remain here, I wish you to send me some choice